Besides the ingredients indispensible for the washing process, such as surfactants and builder materials, washing agents as a rule contain further constituents that can be collectively termed “washing adjuvants” and that thus comprise active-agent groups as different as foam regulators, anti-gray agents, bleaching agents, bleach activators, and color transfer inhibitors. Also included among such adjuvants are substances whose presence intensifies the washing power of surfactants although as a rule they themselves do not need to exhibit pronounced surface-active behavior. The same also applies analogously to cleaning agents for hard surfaces. Such substances are often referred to as “washing power intensifiers” or, because of their pronounced action with respect to oil- or fat-based stains, as “fat boosters.”
International patent application WO 01/57171 A1 discloses washing or post-washing agents that contain, besides surfactant, copolymers of anionic and cationic monomers as well as, optionally, additionally nonionic monomers.
International patent application WO 00/56849 A1 discloses the color- and shape-retaining action of cationically charged polymers in the context of washing textiles.
The soil-release action of block copolymers of ethylenically unsaturated monomers and alkylene oxides, alkylene glycols, or cyclic ethers is known from international patent application WO 03/054044 A2.
International patent application WO 03/066791 A1 describes polymers, associated on substrate surfaces, that are made up of at least 1 mol % amide-group-containing monomers.
It has been found, surprisingly, that specific polymers that are derived from N,N-dimethylacrylamide have particularly good properties that intensify primary washing power.
Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.